


After the Bloom — Sunwoo

by yolkyeomie



Category: K-pop, The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Female Reader, Friends to Lovers, Light Angst, Not Beta Read, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, This is me just making sunwoo pine the entire time, Unrequited Love, literally what is this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29036067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yolkyeomie/pseuds/yolkyeomie
Summary: a flower cannot bloom without sunshine, but maybe too much sunshine could be just as bad. After all, sunwoo feels like he’s been withering away since he met you.
Relationships: Kim Sunwoo (The Boyz)/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	After the Bloom — Sunwoo

**Author's Note:**

> this was a request on my tumblr that I just??? never posted on here for some reason. enjoy sunwoo pining for the ENTIRETY of this fic

A large majority of Sunwoo’s friend group already knew about his hopeless pining for you, he stopped trying to hide it after a few months. Though it’s not like when he was keeping it a secret that no one had any clues of his feelings. He wasn’t exactly the best at hiding the very obvious burning of his ears and the way his usually sly and know-it-all gaze would soften when he was around you.

They’d often find him hanging around somewhere near you as well, usually a little farther away so you couldn’t hold a conversation with him, and he’d just watch you. Not in a disturbing way or anything, he just liked the way you looked when you were with people you felt comfortable with.

The two of you were friends, don’t get him wrong, but there’s only a sense of moderate friendship with him. You were a close friend of his, but not close enough for you to show all your true colors to him. It made him upset every so often, but he could completely understand why you weren’t as open with Sunwoo as you were with others. He was the same way and his awful little crush on you made it harder for him to willingly open up more as well.

He wished you would take the first step into getting closer to him though, but it was only a matter of time before Sunwoo did it himself. Your grand and wide smile, your light and fluttering laughter, even the mere sound of your voice floating along the air were enough to make Sunwoo urge himself to stop being so hesitant when it came to you. It wasn’t like him to stop dead in his tracks and refuse to push forward, but he was nervous. Nervous that when he did take the step over the boundaries the both of you had put up that you’d want nothing more than to be just friends.

Sunwoo didn’t want to be just friends when he crossed those boundaries, but it was more likely than not that you were going to reject him no matter how hard he’d try. There was already someone by your side, Changmin, that you felt comfortable with. He didn’t have mountains and mountains of walls built up around them and allowed you to be as genuine and true to yourself as you wanted. That was something Sunwoo couldn’t exactly do at the moment.

He could see it in your eyes, your smile, your body language, everything. You were set on delivering your heart to someone that wasn’t him and if he confessed now, he’d have the truth blasted in his face stronger than before. Sunwoo didn’t know if he could handle the rejection of such a long time crush.

While Sunwoo understood the situation he was in perfectly, pulling back and away from his slightly brash nature to not make an embarrassment of himself in front of you, his friends didn’t seem to catch the note. In fact, they were probably ignoring it completely.

That’s how he had gotten here, standing outside the venue door where the school was holding their annual formal dressed in an uncomfortable suit and tie and anxiously holding flowers in his hands. It was Kevin’s idea to make Sunwoo go to the formal after learning that you would be attending and it was Chanhee’s idea for him to dress up and sweep you off of your feet. He was so adamant about not going yet here he was, nervously standing outside the door.

“This is stupid, why am I doing this,” he realized, just inches away from grabbing the door handle and walking towards his doom. His friends were setting him up for disaster! You probably weren’t even at the formal anymore, you were rather flaky when it came to gatherings with lots of people. And even if you were you were probably hanging out with your friends and wanted to be with them! You wouldn’t drop everything just because Sunwoo was there, there was no—

“Sunwoo!” The boy snapped his head up, breaking out of his trance to find Eric staring back at him with a wide grin on his face. His eyes dropped to the boy’s hands before letting out a gasp, “how cute, you brought her roses!”

Sunwoo had forgotten about the small bouquet he had brought with him, how he scurried as quickly as he could towards the nearest florist and received a bouquet full of red roses just for you with the last bits of money he had on him. He should at least give these to you so that running all that way wouldn’t go to waste. “Shut up,” he rolled his eyes, ignoring Eric’s teasing smile as he pushed past him into the venue. “I’m just gonna give these to Y/N and leave, that’ll be enough to satisfy Kevin and Chanhee.”

“What? That’s all?” Eric pestered, speeding up so that he could walk side by side with Sunwoo (who was actively trying to lose him). “No talking, no dancing, no nothing? You’re just gonna drop these off and leave?”

“That’s the plan,” he nodded, shooting finger guns at Eric as he turned on his heel to walk backward. “It’s not like I wanted to be here anyway so I’m just going to complete my mission and then I’ll be on my way. Those two can’t yell at me for not doing what they asked when I’ve technically—“

One wrong misstep led to Sunwoo tripping over his own to the feet, losing his balance, and nearly toppling over the unsuspecting person behind him. Eric covered his eyes at the catastrophe, too embarrassed to watch what would happen next, and turned around so he wouldn’t be able to see at all.

Fortunately, Sunwoo isn’t the clumsiest of people so he had a rather easy time regaining his balance and keeping the bouquet in his hands from being ruined. Though whoever he had crashed into wasn’t so lucky.

“Sorry I wasn’t watching where I was— Jesus, Y/N!” He yelled, immediately dropping to his knees to help you up. Though you only laughed at his reaction, gratefully taking his hand as he pulled you back onto your feet and off of the ground.

“Surprise,” you grin, the quick turning of your lips making Sunwoo’s heart do flips. “I wasn’t exactly watching where I was going either, so there’s no need to apologize. I was actually looking for you though, Kevin said you’d be here and honestly didn’t believe him so I had to go see for myself and… here you are! You look good.”

“Of course I do,” He replied, trying to ease himself into the casual banter the two of you usually indulged in. Any normal person with a crush would have complimented the person back, but Sunwoo was so obsessed with making his crush not obvious that he wouldn’t even dare to try. After all, who knew what words would fall out of his mouth if he allowed himself to flatter you. “What are you doing out here alone, though? What about your friends?”

“Hm? Oh, I came with Changmin,” you nonchalantly smile, unknowing of the amount of dread and disappointment that filled Sunwoo’s chest at the thought. “He had stepped away for a moment when Chanhee had called him over, so I decided to come search for you then. And look at what he got me!”

You searched around the two of you for a moment before picking up something off of the ground, turning toward him to display the red and pink flower bouquet that had been gifted to you. “Camellias! Aren’t they pretty?”

The roses in Sunwoo’s hand began to slide out of his hand as he loosened his grasp, replying with a weak, “yeah, they are.” Why didn’t he think about the fact that Changmin would be at the formal? Why didn’t he think about the fact that he’d be the one to bring you flowers? Why didn’t he think about the fact that you were probably with him and no one else, because you liked him?

Everything that was being said to him was falling on deaf ears, his entire plan to hand you flowers (and maybe even muster up the courage to cross your boundaries) now withering away in his self pity. Sunwoo knew it wasn’t a good idea to attend the formal, he knew he didn’t want to attend at all. This was just as bad as a word for word rejection to him.

“Oh wait, let me go get Changmin!” You gasp, breaking out of your trance of the flowers and smiling at Sunwoo. “I’m sure Changmin would love to see you actively participating in a full event. Wait here, okay? I’m serious, don’t move!”

A bittersweet smile crossed Sunwoo’s face as he nodded. “Of course, I’ll be right here.” He strained the smile on his face for as long as you were looking at him, waiting till you had turned around and turned deeper into the venue to go find Changmin for his smile to drop. Sunwoo was so foolish, letting Kevin and Chanhee fill his head with little fantasies he already knew wouldn’t happen. “I’m going home.”

“What?” Eric piped up, trying to salvage the situation as best as possible. “But… the flowers! You haven’t given them to Y/N, you didn’t even mention the fact that you—“

Sunwoo didn’t listen to him, sliding past the boy without another word and a disappointed expression twisting his facial features. There was no point in staying no matter what anyone would try to convince him otherwise, not when you were with him at least. He had nothing against Changmin personally, but just knowing that he was an active part of your life that Sunwoo wanted had thrown him off. He could feign happiness for as long as he wanted, but Changmin would probably be able to tell when Sunwoo wasn’t enjoying his presence.

He didn’t want to handle that situation, not now, when you were supposed to be having fun with Changmin at the school formal. It wasn’t his place to tread where he didn’t belong anyway.

He pushed the door of the venue open and felt a gush of cold air hitting him immediately, sending shivers down his spine as he closed it behind him. He wasn’t going to enjoy the walk home, the cold temperatures of the night time weather, and the swirling thoughts in his head of how naive he had been prevalent in his mind.

“Ah… I guess I should get rid of these, huh?” Sunwoo mumbled to himself, anxiously ruffling up his hair as he stared at the red roses in his hands. “What a waste of money.”

The boy glanced around before his eyes settled on a steel garbage bin that sat not too far from him. Carefully watching his step, he approached the bin with the roses in hand, ready to trash them away and pretend as he had never bought them in the first place. A little symbolic if you asked him, throwing away flowers like he had to push away his feelings.

“Sunwoo!” His name was called, throwing him off guard and clutching the roses to his chest. He turned around to meet your gaze, watching as you struggled to catch your breath as if you had run all the way here to find him. You leaned up against the door for a moment before finally meeting his eyes, “where are you going? I told you to wait for me to come back.”

“Home,” he admitted, finding no use in lying to you. “There was nothing for me to do here anyway, so I’m going home.”

“Still,” you insisted, pushing yourself off of the door and walking towards him. Your eyes darted between the frazzled bouquet of roses in his hands and to Sunwoo’s lowered gaze, sighing to yourself as you tried to figure out the situation at hand. “You had just got here, you can’t make an appearance and then leave without telling anyone. You could have at least waited till I got back.”

When Sunwoo didn’t respond, you smirked at him, lightly hitting his shoulder as you jeered, “what? Did you get your heart broken by a girl or something?” He held his breath at your question, his brain beginning to run on emergency mode as you slid the roses out of his hand and examining them for yourself. “Woah, you brought flowers and everything… it must have been really embarrassing when she rejected you, huh? Is that why you’re leaving so early?”

Sunwoo hesitated for a moment, “in a sense… yeah, you’re not wrong.”

You gasp at his reply, your eyes going wide as you spoke, “are you serious? You really got rejected? That’s crazy, and at the school formal? Who was it? I’ll go and teach them a lesson for you, don’t even worry about it.”

“Really?” He questioned, leaning up against the bin behind him as you eagerly nodded your head as an answer. “Okay, I tell you then.”

“Perfect!” You exclaimed, ready to defend Sunwoo by any means necessary. “Just wait till I get my hands on her, she’ll wish she never rejected—“

“Y/N.” You stopped in the middle of your sentence, slowly meeting his eyes as confusion crossed your face. He nodded his head again and pointed to you as he spoke, “it’s you, Y/N.”

Instinctively you smiled at him, a strained smile, but a smile nonetheless. “I don’t… I don’t think I’m following?”

“The roses,” Sunwoo explained, gesturing toward the bouquet that threatened to fall out of your hands, “they were for you, I bought them on my way here and I was planning on giving them to you. But then you said that Changmin had brought you to the formal and got you camellias, and you were even hanging out around him. I didn’t want to intrude.”

You were struggling to comprehend the words coming out of Sunwoo’s mouth, resorting to the awkward laughter to fill up the silence between you as you spoke, “what would even you be intruding on, Sunwoo? You wouldn’t be—“

“Do you not like Changmin?” He asked, his eyes growing wider with every second you didn’t answer him. “I thought you liked Changmin, you two are always around each other and are super close to each other so I assumed—“

“—you assumed wrong,” you clarified, “Changmin is like a brother to me, Sunwoo. The only reason we hang around each other so often is that we live near each other and take some of the same classes together.”

“But… the camellias—“

“—are a gift,” you finished, playing with one of the rose’s petals as you tried to understand the boy’s thought process. “They were a gift because yesterday I passed a really big exam I had been studying for weeks. The flowers weren’t for the formal, they were given to me as congratulations.”

Sunwoo stared at you blankly, slowly processing the correct answers to his assumptions. Was that why his friends were so adamant about pushing him towards you? For him to finally shoot his shot with you? Because you didn’t actually like Changmin the way he thought you did, because he had misinterpreted your relationship with him? If that was the case, why didn’t they say anything sooner? It would have saved him so much more time!

“Do you get it now?” You asked him, “we’re just friends, I don’t think I could ever see myself dating Changmin in the first place.”

Sunwoo snapped back into reality upon hearing your voice, “seriously?”

“Seriously,” you nodded, picking a rose out of the bouquet and holding it out to him. You urged him to take it out of your hand and spoke, “now can you please come back to the formal? Everyone’s waiting for you and we wanted to have a fun time together. I was really counting on your arrival too.”

You were waiting for him. You, Y/N, were waiting on Sunwoo to attend the formal after Kevin had opened his mouth and spilled his potential appearance? “Sunwoo?”

“Sorry,” he blurted. You were going to question him on why he was apologizing as there was no need for him to do such a thing when Sunwoo took a hold of your face, pulling you toward him and leaning in to kiss you out of the pure adrenaline that had built up within his body. However, he stopped before your lips could even touch, his breath fanning across your face and freezing in place. You only stared at him wide-eyed, closer to him than you’ve been before.

If only the two of you weren’t so close, crossing the boundaries you had both set in place for each other when you first met, maybe he wouldn’t have caught the way you flushed at his actions or heart how hard your heart began beating against your chest.

“Sorry,” Sunwoo repeated, letting go of you and taking a step back. You weren’t the only one shaken by the sudden turn of events, the boy felt his body tremble against the thought of kissing you right then and there.  
He didn’t have the confidence to do that, not here at least, it was only the adrenaline making him move. “I’m sorry, I’ll see you in class or something tomorrow. Bye, Y/N,” He quickly excused himself, not even giving you time to answer him as Sunwoo dashed as fast as his legs would take him. At least he knew now that if he were to ever pull something dangerous like that, you wouldn’t exactly stop him from doing so.


End file.
